The Things We Wish Were True Quotes

“there were the things she wished were true, and there was what was actually true. She was learning that there was usually a great distance between the two.”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“Did life add to or take away from who we are at sixteen? The”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“Did life add to or take away from who we are at sixteen?”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“You’ve been through a traumatic experience,” Zell said. “You’re entitled to fall apart.”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“In just a few weeks, family had become strangers, and strangers had become family.”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“She had been herself then, with him, but was that self a shadow of her actual self or the more realized version? Did life add to or take away from who we are at sixteen?”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“Parents were supposed to be the ones to make the nightmares go away.”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“there were the things she wished were true, and there was what was actually true.”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“She turned back to watch the action across the street and waited to feel the good feelings she’d imagined her confession would bring.”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“The thing about adventure was, it usually required at least a modicum of danger. They”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“If you do this, she coached herself, everything could change. But everything was going to change anyway. She”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“But I was also thinking about what it would be like to go back to being the one who took care of people instead of being the one who got cared for.”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“She thought of all the things they’d been avoiding seeing, and for so long. He was right. There was much they needed to see.”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“In just a few weeks, family had become strangers, and strangers had become family. I”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“But I was also thinking about what it would be like to go back to being the one who took care of people instead of being the one who got cared for. Zell”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“She said that sometimes things just aren’t strong enough to make it in this world. Standing”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“Sometimes when I saw people with their fancy cars and their nice houses, I wondered how many jobs they must have had to work to have that kind of life. After”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“Once we went to a family picnic back when my mother was still speaking to her family. We ate hot dogs and hamburgers that my mom’s dad cooked on the grill, and my mom’s stepmom, a woman she insisted was evil but seemed nice enough to me. She made apple pie for dessert. We ate big, warm slices with rivers of vanilla ice cream melting into the crust. The pie made me feel good inside: warm and full and happy. Then my mom said her stepmom probably made those pies from poisoned apples, and I spent the rest of the night thinking of Snow White eating the poisoned apple and sleeping for years. I was afraid to go to sleep that night.”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“People are always talking, Mom, in case you haven’t noticed. It’s whether you care what they’re saying that matters.” Her”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“She would wrap her arms around him, and if he pulled away, he would be the one to pull away. But she wasn’t going to pull away anymore. She would love him until the last second she had to love him. And if she lost him anyway, well, at least she’d made the most of the time she had with him.”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“Cailey noticed her looking and waved her in. Rigby trotted on in with no hesitation, partly because the house smelled so delicious, Bryte guessed.”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“took him a moment to realize the child wasn’t playing; he wasn’t seeing how long he could hold his breath or pulling a prank on his friends. Lance dove in without thinking, a reflex that extended, it turned out, beyond his own children.”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“She was Jennifer C, or, as her second-grade teacher coined it, “Jen C.” There had also been “Jen L.” As second grade went on, the teacher ran the abbreviations together so fast that they came out as one word. So “Jen C” became Jencey, and “Jen L” became Jennelle.”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“They were relearning each other, having become basically strangers in their years apart. They no longer knew how to be around each other, so their conversations were awkward, infused with a strange tension that Jencey hoped would go away with time.”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“held the phone in her hand and blinked at the 4:47 display, thinking about how surprisingly easy it was to decide to change your life forever, and how surprisingly easy it was to keep that decision from the one you loved the most.”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“growing up is facing your fears and doing the things you didn’t want to do.”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“Cutter was not doing so well. But you know what she would say to me? She would say he’s doing just fine and that I should be able to see him soon. I hate when adults lie to kids.”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“Her therapist back in New Canaan would have had a fit. Of course, therapists were a luxury from the past. Ironic that now that she had real, actual problems, she could no longer afford one.”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“Cutter and I were there when they opened the Sycamore Glen pool for the summer. So I actually saw, with my own eyes, the spider web that was woven across the gate, keeping all the people from just walking right on in like they’d done every year. Our new neighbors shuffled their feet and sighed real loud as they waited for the lifeguards to figure out what to do. They held their towels and”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True

“sent her back? What does this say about Zell? (Your answer could be positive or negative.) Bryte and Jencey were friends as children. How does that play into their relationship in the novel? Do either of them feel a sense of “claim” on the other? Should”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True